Winde pleased with Karoo's early results, says too soon to comment on PA's early gains

Source: EWN Traffic
Author: Lindsay Dentlinger

CAPE TOWN - As activity slowly picks up at the nerve centre for the Western Cape's vote count, it's going to be a nerve-wracking day, especially for the Democratic Alliance (DA).

Several of its leaders including Premier Alan Winde, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and DA provincial leader Tertius Simmers have gathered at the results operation centre at Century City.

Winde said despite many having to endure long queues and longer waiting times, he's heartened that by and large people were not too angry.

"I don't think the IEC [Electoral Commission of South Africa] made decisions quick enough on splitting queues. Eventually, a lot of those long queues split too late when it went to manual systems. It should have gone quicker to manual systems.

Long queues formed in areas like Durbanville, Brackenfell, Parklands and The Winelands, with the last voters finally able to cast their ballots by 1 am.

Winde said although it's very early on in the count, he's pleased with results coming in from the Karoo.

"I was really excited to see some of those numbers coming in, they bode well. We've got some by-elections in the next couple of weeks. We're going straight into by-election in that region."

Winde said it was too early to comment on how big an impact gains made by the Patriotic Alliance in the outlying areas will have on the DA's influence in the province.